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About Me

Jesus Follower. Wife. Mom. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Friend. Second Grade Teacher. Pianist. Singer. Avid Reader. Dog Lover.
I married my sweetheart 27 yrs ago. We have an amazing son! We live next door to my parents and 3 miles from my hubby's mom. Family is very important to me. We have 3 dogs~I love my fur- babies! I enjoy reading, playing piano, hiking, riding bicylces, roller skating, and kayaking. I need to do those things more! Blogging is my new favorite pasttime. I teach second grade~my students are the BEST! Most importantly, Jesus loves me~and I love Him. He loves you, too!

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

In second grade, we must teach noun, verb, adjective, and adverb in my county. So, we have anchor charts for each. Here are mine from my anchor chart journal. :) I also photographed my anchor charts and made 4 x 6 copies for those little photo albums. Students who struggle with transfer from the large charts can borrow a photo album to copy or use my anchor chart journal to copy if that's easier for them.

I copied the chart from various places. Some of the I tweaked to make my own, and then I took the photos and filled in my anchor chart journal for my students' use. I really am loving these anchor charts!! Do you have your students copy anchor charts into a journal?

Anchor charts are the way to go! They have helped my students so much this year...or at least that's what I think! ;) I am going to put that to the test just a little more this final week before Thanksgiving Break. It will show me what I need to prepare for the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Breaks.

I am lovin' me some Anchor Charts! (Yeah, I know...bad grammar, but it fits.)

Here are some of the Anchor Charts we've done this year. I have created Anchor Charts in class with my students, using my phone to look at the ones I was trying to copy (to some extent, sometimes fully, sometimes not). Laila is always telling me, "You're cheating when you look at your phone, Mrs. S.!" So, the first one I'll share is mine. I saw something about Superhero SWAG, made one of those, then decided to add my own Super Sentences to our Anchor Chart collection.

This is my "Super Sentences" anchor chart copied into my Anchor Chart jounral. Oh, yeah! That's the beauty of my anchor charts this year. My students have an ELA/Reading journal (those composition books that are sewn together) as well as a Math journal. In these, they copy Anchor Charts as well as write constructed responses to Math Problem Solving Cards, Math journal problems (in Math notebook) and write constructed responses in their ELA/Reading journals. The last 27 pages of the ELA/Reading journal also holds the child's individual Word Wall for words s/he needs to remember how to spell.

I just can't decide if I'll have one or two "journals" for my students next year. I suppose I'll know if they need one or two by the end of the year by how many pages are left over with this year's students. Here are a few more of my Anchor Charts...most ideas copied from someone! :D

The Author's Purpose was on our last benchmark (but not in the Unit), so our students needed this one!

We're working on story problems now, so this felt appropriate.

My team and I have noticed that our children write like ThIs aLL tHe TiMe...so we tried to "refresh" their minds on what needs capitalization and what doesn't! :)

I also found the cutest little picture of "Bb" like to go "walking" and "Dd" like to stay "talking" because I noticed one of my sweeties was writing capital B and D only due to confusion about the lowercase ones. She writes Bb walking and Dd talking each week on her phonics list to remind herself which one is which! Awesomeness!!

I'd like to give a shout out to Leslie Ann at Life in First Grade. This picture is on her August 26, 2012 blog.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

This was written in our class today, singing the “I’m a single lady” part of the song repeatedly. My children loved it so much, we had to invite the other four classes to come sing with us! We have a hit! :) I planned to video my students singing this afternoon for my blog, but we ran out of time(sigh). Maybe Monday…

Thursday, November 21, 2013

We've been learning using Thinking Maps for the past two years.My latest is Directions for comparing and contrasting The Gingerbread Boy and the Gingerbread Girl OR The Wolf's Chicken Stew and My Lucky Day (both by Keiko Kasza). To work toward this Common Core standard, ELACC2RL9: Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures, I created a directions sheet to go with blank Double Bubble Maps for my students. Maybe I fudged a little by comparing two stories by an author from another culture...but the gingerbread boy and girl balance the scale, don't you think? My students loved The Wolf's Chicken Stew and one of the boys in my class had My Lucky Day at home. He said he had a story that was sort of similar. I asked if he thought maybe the books had the same author, but he didn't thinkso. When he brought the book to school the next day, we discovered they did have the same author and it grew from there. The children loved the stories, especially My Lucky Day. If you haven't read that one, you'll enjoy it. It has such a surprise ending! :)

Find the Compare and Contrast Directions here if you wish to use them. Happy day! †~Melly~†

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Golly Molly! I can't believe it's September 26 and I haven't blogged since August 28! Let's see...team leader-check; healthy mom-in-love-check; CCGPS SEATS plans-check; Instructional Calendar for 2013-2014-check; busy second graders-check; student teachers-check; happy students-check; healthy parents-check; tired teacher-check! My Caddi that was such a deal has just about gone its last mile. It smokes like a freight train now. My Toyota RAV4 is ordered and soon to arrive (please pray it arrives TOMORROW!), and so much more is being done or needs to be done! Top all this with a friend having a Yard Sale Saturday and wanting me to join. Ha! I have also received a grant from Reflex Math that I think you should check out. Has anyone used Reflex Math? It is a computer program with games to teach Math Fact Fluency (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). The website touts their success rate. I will definitely let you know if the results in my classroom back up their testimonials. It certainly looks like a fun game to me. I applied and received this online. You may want to check into it if you've not heard of it before. The company will grant two teachers per school to use the program free for one year. The website also says they have a limit per county or school district. I was gung-ho to get it in order to use the computer games for my students to practice Math facts! I'll keep you posted...I am going to have Reflex Math as one station, SumDog Math as another station, iXL (which my school purchases) as a third station, and then "Teacher Time" with myself and my student teachers (yes, two of them!) to practice skills using games and paper/pencil work. Whew!! What a busy classroom we have! I am thankful to have 10 nooks, a quad (one computer, four stations), a teacher computer, a laptop, and a Promethean Board in my class this year! I'm soooo thankful for all the blessings in my classroom for my students! God has been soooo good to us! †~Melly~†

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

It has been an interesting Spring and Summer. I celebrated birthday number 50 in April. Our son moved into an apartment in July, so my husband and I became empty-nesters. Darling Hubby decided this was the time to put down the hardwood floors I bought at such a bargain after we sold my old car. What a way to spend the summer! YIKES! I haven't slowed down to get online lately. My Mom-in-Love had her second bought of breast cancer. She found out just before July 4th and had a mastectomy August 1. After her surgery, she had a "bleed" and almost bled out the following evening. Combine that with the beginning of school and you can imagine I have been one tired puppy. :)I'm BAAAAAAACCCKKKKK!! †~Melly~†

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener really does what it says it will do! Troy at Classroom Friendly Supplies was kind enough to offer me a sharpener for my classroom for my honest opinion on the sharpener. It is awesome!

First, let me explain. I teach second grade sweeties (you already know this part). Sometimes they are a little rough on a pencil sharpener (I bet you suspected this, if you didn't already know it!). I've gone through many, many pencil sharpeners in my years teaching. I even refused to allow anyone (other than my appointed "pencil sharpener") to touch my electric pencil sharpener. I have gone so far as to HIDE (seriously, folks) my pencil sharpener (or at least the part that catches the stuff so it wouldn't work) when I had to be out and leave a substitute in charge. That was a result of previous pencil sharpeners being destroyed utterly annihilated by my lovelies when I was not at school!! >:(

Woe be unto me the times I forgot to hide the parts and came back to a pencil sharpener that chewed and whirred and ground all day, but would no longer sharpen a pencil properly. The latest in a long line of pencil sharpeners was my $75.00 electric sharpener that I HID for the summer, only to come back and find that it chewed and whirred and ground all day, but would no longer sharpen a pencil properly!! Can you say ticked? (Yeah, I know, I said worse, too!) Let's just try to keep it clean here...

Then suddenly, on the horizon, the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener is making all these promises...promises of 1-NO NOISE (very little!), 2-a perfect point every time (YEP!), and I quote "It will change the way you sharpen pencils in your classroom." Well, I have to say...I was skeptical. I wanted to see this for myself and I'm not even from Missouri (the Show-Me state). So...the judge is in and the verdict is...this pencil sharpener delivers on its promises!!

GET ONE FOR EVERYONE IN YOUR SCHOOL!

HURRY! DO IT NOW BEFORE SUPPLY IS GONE!!

Check this little baby out. It's pulled out so you just squeeze the black tabs on top together, insert your pencil, put your hand on top of the green barrel, and sharpen until the pencil stops. SOooo simple and easy, yet marvelous! Students can sharpener their pencils perfectly (2 at a time, please...then hurry back to writing!) without all the noise.

Seriously, I am going to forward this to my princiPAL and let her know that in my humble opinion, we can save mucho $$$$ by ordering at least one (preferably two for morning sharpenings) per class! At $25.00, the price of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener is about half what I usually spent on an electric sharpener. If I'd known about the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener when I spent $75.00 for the big one, I could've had THREE! Count 'em and weep with me! With the teacher pack, I would have had enough left over to buy a burger, even! The school pack makes the savings even better, hence my suggestion to buy for the entire building.

I just wonder how durable this cute little car would be. Isn't that the neatest? I might get one of those for my grandbabies (if/when I am ever blessed with one/some)...think Troy would share one of those with me for another blog? Of course, now my dilemma is finding a way to 1-convince my princiPAL that this truly is the way to go as far as pencil sharpeners go, and 2-getting that cute little car. Hint, hint, Troy! ;) Hurry, order yours today at Classroom Friendly Supplies! You won't be sorry. Now, when are they going to create scissors that won't walk out of your classroom when your back is turned?!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Congratulations to Raye W who is the winner of Carson-Dellosa's Common Core Standard Kit! I hope you enjoy it, Raye!

I'm lovin' it. Not only do I have standards posted in the pocket chart where my Essential Questions (EQs) are posted, but I have pulled out standards for my small groups. We are highlighting key words in the "I can" statements as well as reading and reviewing the standard written on the opposite sides of the cards. What an awesome resource. Thanks again, Carson-Dellosa!